Recruiting For Large Project

[Matthias King 348]

I'm looking at starting a large project and I'm hoping to bring on some help. I need builders as well as content creators, and possibly at least a little help from modders depending on what issues arise.

I'm aiming to create a large city within very specific guidelines and need help. I can get into more detail for anyone who might be interested. What I envision is something of a community build project, with support from creators for specific buildings and features.

I have a wishlist of people from this community who I'd ideally like to participate.

If you're interested in hearing more, please post here or message me.

Thank you.

[GC_Vos 714]

I'd love to hear more about the project, can you roughly explain what you are planning to do?

[Roadman20 601]

Interested for additional details, do not know if I could contribute a lot of time though.

[Matthias King 348]

Here's the short version:

I'm working on a novel. I'm almost finished with it. I will be fairly soon, and then I'll be looking for a publisher. The novel is set in a fictional, but realistic modern American city in Southern California.

What I'm looking to do is realize that city as well as I can within the confines of what CS is capable. With this I'll need help creating the map, working out the proper in-game scale vs real-life scale, building the city, and creating important buildings and landmarks. Many of the vanilla assets can stand in and work just fine. There are several that I have in mind that will work well, some that I even really like and imagine taking their place in the city, but there are other places and buildings in the city that no vanilla asset can represent. Several buildings are important to the story and would need to be represented accurately.

I know it's a lot of work, which is why I'm hoping to recruit help. Otherwise I won't be able to get it done. But I know it's a lot of commitment, especially from content creators. That's a lot of 3d modeling, for free, for what is ultimately my project.

The only thing I can offer is a thanks in my book when, and more importantly if it gets published.

If this sounds interesting, please contact me.

P.S. #GC_Vos, you were on my shortlist of creators.

[Darf 1,439]

Maybe you could provide a list of the kind of assets you are looking for and at what time/date you need them.. I'm kind of busy at the moment doing 5 projects at once.

[Matthias King 348]

I don't think I would have a full, definitive list until I start working on it, and there are a few that are very specialized that I'd need to work closely with the creator on the design, but there are a few things offhand that I know I'd need:

McDonald's

Burger King

Wendy's

Subway

Carl's Jr.

Del Taco

El Pollo Loco

A couple of classic American diners that don't have to be based on any existing restaurant.

 

These are just a few. And keep in mind I'm only looking for realistic, so the overall design and scale has to be right compared to their real-life counterparts, and they need to be really tight and clean in the file size department. For these food places, no more than 4 megs per asset tops.

Parking can generally be put in separately depending on how the asset works out to the lot size. Most of these should be small. I don't think any of them should hit anywhere near 4x4 for the actual building. 2x3 or 3x2 at most for most of them.

I'm cool with them being growables or ploppable. If they're ploppable, I can just make them work with the RICO mod.

Once again, I know this is a huge commitment to ask of people, so I understand why I'm not getting people lining up out the door to help.

 

[Ocram's Razr 963]

Good luck!

 

You inspired me to start my own project, only being a traditionalist society in a science fiction setting (Civilization Beyond Earth/Purity/Franco-Iberia).

 

EDIT: I've already made the map and 3D modeled some buildings but I wasn't originally planning on using them.

[Matthias King 348]

Good luck with your project.

[Koesj 659]

Unfortunately I'm just too busy with real life stuff and updating what I've already put out, and not even thinking of doing something new.

[Matthias King 348]

Fair enough. You were another on my shortlist of creators I wanted on my team. I hope you can get your work done soon.

[boformer 3,169]

If you got some general mod requests (things other players would also like to see), I can see what I can do in april.

I'm not an expert when it comes to traffic related things or new tools, but anything that involves buildings, trees, etc. could be possible.

[Matthias King 348]

I'm not sure on mods. I wasn't sure what I might need until we got into putting the city together and seeing what can and can't be done with the mods currently out.

Though it's looking like the project isn't going to happen. I'm not getting any volunteers. I figured it was a longshot before I even asked.

[GC_Vos 714]

Wouldn't a list of 'wanted' assets suffice for this? If it's American structures you're looking for, they could just be general purpose assets?

[Matthias King 348]

There are some like that, such as the fast food places I listed. As long as they're scale-accurate and small in file size, then they'll be perfect not only for me, but everyone else in the community as well. But there are some very specific things I need also.

A couple of examples are:

A man-made concrete canal, like the one in Los Angeles. There's also one in the city where I live and I think they're really cool features. There's one in the city in my book and it's featured in the story and will be more in the future. That's a must.

And there are a few buildings, such as a high-rise office complex where one of the characters works. I've imagined it a certain way and it's described that way in the book, so the asset would need to reflect that.

And of course I'd need SoCal style housing. The typical project housing found in LA and San Diego, the single homes typically found there, and some motels. These are all featured prominently in the book.

I also need graffiti assets. A lot of the buildings would need to have graffiti baked into their textures, but what I also need, and this might also appeal to others in general, are some overlay textures, basically like the two or three large wall ads in the vanilla billboards that look painted on. I need a good handful of those that are just a mess of gang graffiti, in varying sizes and shapes. That would allow me to add graffiti to existing assets to help them blend in.

There are a lot of bad, gang-infested neighborhoods in the book, inspired by things I've seen in real life, and you can't recreate those kinds of areas with vanilla assets. I need purpose-built houses and shops that have seen better days, and I need the graffiti.

This is why I needed to recruit people. I need a number of specific things to do this project or it just can't be done, and unfortunately they're things I just can't do myself.

[GC_Vos 714]

I'd help with a few of those assets (the LA river was one source of inspiration for these though I ended up going for a Chicago look). On the whole most of the ideas could go well as part of a larger collection.

However I don't think it's realistic to expect the whole list of things to be done, you may just have to make do with whatever is made available...

[Matthias King 348]

This is a friendly community with talented people, so I was really hoping that if I put out a recruitment call, people would jump onboard, but it's looking like that was clearly too optimistic.

But it's fine. The project won't happen. That's how things go.